Apparatus for discharging dredge-hoppers and the like.



o. FR-fiHLING.

APPARATUS FOR DISGHARGING DREDGE HOPPERS AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 1, 1910 1 ,0 1 2, 1 96 Patented Dec. 19, 1911 IIIIFIIIIIII/C flier neg COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH CU HINGTON. D C I I a sums-sum 1. n 22;- 1

0. PRUHLING.

APPARATUS FOR DISGHARGING DREDGE HOPPERS AND THE LIKE. APPLIGATION FILED JUNE 1, 1910.

1,012,196, Patented Dec. 19,1911.

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0. FRUHLIN G.

APPARATUS FOR DISGHARGING DREDGB HOPPERS AND THE LIKE.

. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 1, 1910. 1,012,196, A Patented Dec.19,1911.

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OTTO FRI l'I-ILING, OF BRUNSWICK, GERMANY.

APPARATUS FOR DISCHARGING DREDGE-HOPPERS AND THE LIKE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 19, 1911.

Application filed June 1, 1910. Serial No. 564,445.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it lmown that I, OTTO FRt'iHLING, a subject of the Emperor of Germany, residing at Brunswick, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Discharging Dredge-Hoppers and the Like, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to apparatus for removing or discharging waste, mud, sludge or other dredged or similar pulverulent or granular material from the holds, hoppers or compartments of ships, barges, dredges or similar vessels.

My invention uses no dumping doors in the bottom of the vessel through which the material is directly dumped, but relates to that class of apparatus in which the discharge is effected by allowing external water to flood the material and sucking or drawing ofl the waste thus diluted or broken up. In my apparatus the removal of the waste is effected by providing a lateral discharge of the waste which has been flooded by the added water the exit of which may be initiated, facilitated or accompanied by the usual suction pump outlets. In eflecting this operation water is supplied or drawn in in a well known manner through an opening at or near the bottom of the vessel and the material flooded or diluted thereby. For the purposes of the present invention, however, the inlet pipe connecting the opening for the water supply and the holds or hoppers are provided directly at the side wall of the hopper or hold and they have such a shape, so limited a length as well as such a cross-sectional area as to allow the entrance of the water into the interior of the hopper or hold and, at the same time, a direct lateral discharge of the waste out of the vessel through the same pipe or pipes. In these short pipes the flow of the discharged waste will take place in a direction opposite to the flow of the entering water. The water will pass laterally into the hold through the upper portion of the cross-sectional area of the pipe and break up the deposited dredged material whichis then discharged into the external water through the lower portion of the said cross-sectional area of the pipe. This action may be initiated or facilitated or accompanied by the usual suction pump or pumps at other outlets from the hold. By

this means the disadvantages incident to dumping doors in the bottom of the vessel are avoided and the whole construction and operation simplified so as to produce a cheap expeditious discharge of the waste.

In order to get the greatest efliciency from the device it will be necessary toprotect the inlet and outlet pipe, for supplying the Water and discharging the waste, from thethe same through the hopper looking toward the left end of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal vertical section of a hopper barge equipped with another form of my invention. Fig. 5 is a longitudinal horizontal section of the same, and Fig. 6 is a vertical transverse section of the same. Figs. 7 and 8 are respectively vertical and horizontal longitudinal sections of a hopper barge equipped with means for protecting the inlet and outlet pipe from the direct descent of the dredged material in the hopper and Figs. 9 and 10 are sectional views of details thereof.

The material to be discharged is in the hopper or hold X the bottom of which may be curved as shown in Fig. 3. Toward the center of the hopper and at the bottom at one end are the lateral openings a from which leads a short pipe 0 which at its other end is open to the water in which the vessel floats. A valve 7 is provided for closing the pipe 0. As will be seen from Fig. 1, the short pipe 0 is of elbow form and laterally secured near the bottom of the compartment or hold. The opening a has-so large a diameter, (with a medium sized sea-goincr dredger for instance, twenty-four inches? that the material in the hopper or hold X when sufficiently soaked and broken up by the supplied water will at once be discharged through the large and short pipe 0. If the valve f is opened, the external water will enter laterally into the hopper or hold near the bottom through the pipe 0 and this inflow will principally or solely take place through the upper portion 0 (Fig. 1) of the cross-sectional area of said pipe. Thus the material adjoining the pipe 0 will become soaked by the water and adapted to be discharged into the external water through the lower portion of the cross-sectional area of the short pipe 0. he waste when suiticiently broken up by the water supplied will at once by its heavier weight cause this antomatic discharge. The more the waste is broken up by the entering water, the more will be discharged through the pipe 0 from the interior of the waste which is situated higher than the pipe 0.

At the bottom of the end of the hold or hopper opposite the openings at is provided a lateral opening I) with which is connected the suction pipe 6!, adapted to be opened or closed by the valve 9, leading to the pump 6 for conveying the waste mixed with water to the discharge pipe 9. The discharge of the waste or dredged material through the lower portion of the cross-sectional area of pipes 0 will preferably be assisted by starting the pump for drawing or sucking oii the material. For certain kinds of dredged material such assistance may even be necessary. It will also be an advantage to employ the usual arrangements in hopper dredges, as for instance, caps or aprons for covering the horizontal portion of the hopper or hold adjacent the discharge pipe, so that an effective action of the dredger pump on the entering rinsing water may be secured.

It will be obvious that the discharge pipe need not be arranged outside the hopper or hold but may be located at any suitable point at or near the bottom of the hopper. Care will only have to be taken that the material deposited in the hopper will not directly press upon the discharge pipe but that a lateral flow of the spoil is possible.

In Figs. 4, 5, 6, a modification is illustrated. The pipes 0 for simultaneously supplying water and delivering the waste end at the bottom, but they operate as lateral pipes since they communicate with lateral openings (0.

For assisting the dilution or flooding of the waste there are provided lateral plates m, h, having suitable openings 6 6 having bottom plates a which collect the diluted material and conduct it in a suitable manner to the discharge openings a and 6 respec tively. For assisting the suction of the dredge pump, the known ridged aprons q, r, 8 may also be employed as illustrated in Figs. 710. These aprons (Q, r, s) are so shaped that when the hold or hopper is charged with dredged material the latter cannot penetrate into the upper portion of the aprons, there being always a layer of compressed water which extends from open ing to opening. Thus the upper portion of the apron forms a passage for the external water when supplied, and enables the water to be spread at once over the whole hopper and to influence and permeate the whole of the lower layer of the material. Finally in the case of heavy or particularly solid material deposited in the hopper or hold, the efficiency of the method hereinbetore described may also be increased by introducing water under pressure into the hold in a known manner at suitable places, by means of tubes t and facilitating by heavy jets of water a, the permeation of the external water into the material, see Figs. 44').

The advantages of the new method consist in: 1, that for a more easy discharge of the material deposited in the hold, the diluting action on the material is produced by the automatically entering external water; 2, that the act of emptying the hold is particularly quickly effected by the simultaneous employment of the two methods of emptying, that is to say, automatic discharge and pumping out, and 8, that independently of the discharge method employed, the exterior of the barges, dredges, or other vessels may be as simple and advantageous as possible and adapted to the especial purpose, and that by this means all disadvantages resulting from the employment of dumping doors are obviated.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a device for discharging dredge hoppers and the like, a hopper for dredged material, a conduit opening laterally from the hopper near its bottom into the external water for simultaneously introducing water into the hopper and discharging material diluted by said water, and aprons adjacent to the lateral opening keeping a space adjacent the lateral opening in the hopper tree from dredged material. 7

2. In a device for discharging dredge hoppers and the like, a hopper for dredging material, a horizontal pipe opening laterally from the hopper near its bottom, a vertical pipe connecting the horizontal pipe with the external water for simultaneously introducing water into the hopper and discharging material diluted by said water, and aprons keeping a space adjacent the lateral opening in the hopper free from dredged material.

3. In a device for discharging dredge hoppers and the like, a hopper for dredged material, a suction pipe at one end of the hopper for withdrawing part of the dredged material, at the other end of the hopper a conduit connecting a lateral opening near the bottom of the hopper with the external water for simultaneously introducing water into the hopper and discharging material diluted by said water, and an apron forming a Water channel between the lateral openspace adjacent thereto free from dredged ing and the suction pipe. material. 10

4. In a device for discharging dredge hop- In Witness whereof I have hereunto set pers and the like, a hopper for dredged Inamy hand in the presence of two yvltnesses.

terial, a pipe opening laterally at or near I OTTO FRUHLING.

the bottom of the hopper and leading to the external Water, and an apron in the hopper adjacent the pipe opening keeping a Witnesses HEINRICH MEYER, GUSTAV ASOHENBROICH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington, D. G. 

